2014 was the year of the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, a moment that has Taiwanese defined politics for the past decade. Its aftermath saw a wave of young politicians run for and win office in Taiwan, reversing the course of Taiwan’s destiny at a time in which it seemed like unification with China was all but inevitable. Taipei at Daybreak is a literary fiction novel about a Taiwanese American participant in the Sunflower Movement. Set between 2011 and 2016, the protagonist, referred to as Q. or Q.Q., drifts between social movements in America and Asia, including Occupy Wall Street in New York City in Fall 2011, the post-Fukushima protest movement in Tokyo in Spring 2012, then the largest social movement in Japan since the 1960s and finally the Sunflower Movement in Spring 2014. Eventually becoming a journalist in the wake of the Sunflower Movement, Q. struggles internally with the self-destructive, violent impulses that drive him to the frontlines of social movements out of a profound sense of ennui. Further contributing to his nihilistic streak are those around him, such as Aoi, a Japanese artist living in New York City, who seems to be driven by a sense of meaninglessness in life, and Ray, his Taiwanese confidant and colleague seeking connection but also oblivion.
